Private: Giancarlo Giammetti

This beautiful collector’s volume features in-depth interviews, collections from his journals, and a curated selection of exclusive personal pictures. “Not many people know that I have been taking pictures almost all my life,” says Giammetti. “I had amassed more than 50,000 images. Reviewing them all [for this book] reminded me that Valentino and I have lived through an amazing series of events and fashion moments, and that we have met thousands of interesting people.” 

Divided into four sections, this story begins in the “Early Days” where Giammetti recounts his birth in Rome during World War II. It continues through a chance meeting with the young Valentino in 1960 at Café de Paris in Rome, during the height of “La Dolce Vita.”

 ...p> Once introduced the two quickly establish a lasting bond and have lived their lives by each other’s side. Their relationship created the foundation for “The Tribe,” the title of the book’s second section and what Giammetti calls the eclectic cast of characters and lifelong friends that he describes as “the extended family that we voluntarily create over time,” and at other times, a “traveling circus.”